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Here is what the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd edition, 2008) says about quotations (section 3.9.7).

Whether set off from the text or run into it, quoted material is usual preceded by a colon if the quotation is formally introduced and by a conma or no punctuation if the quotation is an integral part of the sentence structure.

Shelly held a bold view: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the World."

Shelly thought poets "the unacknowledged ...."

"Poets," according to Shelley, "are the unacknowledged ...."

The Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition, 2010) provides similar guidance (sections 13.17-19) with one exception. When the quoted text is set off (Chicago calls this a block quotation), a period rather than colon may be used unless the introductory text ends with thus, as follows, or other wording that requires a colon.